Hi Everyone,
It was rounds 4,5 and 6 at Brands Hatch this weekend of the Dunlop Sports Maxx Championship. Unfortunately i was not in a position to test on Friday, so it was straight into qualifying on the Saturday morning.
John George who races in the BTCC was driving the Seat Leon celebrity car and another addition to class B was Ray Grimes driving EJM?s Clio Sport, Ray has raced and instructed for many years, there was also three other drivers out, so the class B numbers are on the up, plus class A also had more cars, which included my new team mates in John Allison and Stuart Clarke, both driving Thorney Motorsport Vauxhall Astra Turbo?s.
Anyway back to qualifying, which went pretty well, because I put the Thorney Motorsport Corsa on pole in class B, the car was really good to drive and gave me lots of confidence to try and get the maximum out of it.
The first race on Saturday afternoon was exciting, due to the fact that I made a cracking start and managed to pass a number of class A cars. So that was a challenge to keep in front of them for as long as possible, it took about 3 laps before there extra power allowed them to pass me. The main objective is to win class B, which I managed to do and set fastest lap, which gives me an extra point.
Sunday morning was dry after overnight rain and in the second race I again made a good start, but it got a bit hectic going into Druids for the first time, with the class A cars backing up. This allowed Ray Grimes and John George to get the drop on me, so I was 3rd in class B over the line at the end of lap 1. As we raced into Paddock, Ray who was leading got very out of shape and John George managed to overtake on the inside, but when I tried to follow him through, I got tagged by Ray who was still trying to control his Clio. We touched and both went spinning off, Ray got going again with his drivers door all stoved in and I managed to just avoid the armco, which was probably by luck, rather than my driving skills. The problem was that the marshals insisted that I retire, due to possible damage on the car, this proved not to be the case, because other than slightly deranged steering, the car would have been ok. When I got back to the paddock Ray came across and apologised, which was appreciated. But hey, that?s racing.
So for race 3, because I had not finished race 2, all the success ballast (45kg) was taken out, but I had to start from the back of the grid, so the car was lighter and the challenge was to make up the maximum places in the time available. I made a good start again and had the best Sport Maxx race ever, with lots of passing and good racing, set F.L and won class B and passed a class A car as well.
I know it sounds like an old record, but thanks again to John Thorne and his team for their help and encouragement, plus I saved them money by using old tyres all weekend. Not bad for a girl eh? 
Abbie x
